Election officials say they’re getting suspicious emails that may be part of

On Mar 3, 2021

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Election officials said they are getting suspicious emails that could be a part of a widespread malicious attack on voting across several states, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

Several emails identified by the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC) appeared to impersonate state elections directors, according to a private alert sent Friday and reviewed by Journal.

These emails requested the election official recipients click on a link to get two-factor authentication hardware, but the EI-ISAC, an information sharing group, did not find malicious links or attachments in most of the emails sampled.

Another set of emails impersonated voters with disabilities who were asking about ways to vote from home.

“Some of these emails were designed to mimic standard correspondence that election officials would expect to receive…which increases the risk that an official might click a malicious link,” the alert said.

Officials began reporting these emails to the EI-ISAC on Oct. 15, it reportedly added.

“While these phishing messages appear to be part of a widespread campaign, the source and motive remain unclear,” the alert said.

The alert noted that the emails have not been connected to any foreign adversaries and do not seem to be very coordinated or sophisticated, a person familiar with the matter told the Journal.

The source told the newspaper that the EI-ISAC, which was formed in 2018 to communicate with election officials across the U.S., sent out the alert to remind officials to be careful after receiving reports that some users were clicking links in suspicious emails.

The EI-ISAC and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which works with the center, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Hill.

Last week, Director of National Intelligence John RatcliffeJohn Lee Ratcliffe Hillicon Valley: Treasury sanctions Russian group accused of targeting critical facilities | Appeals court rules Uber, Lyft must comply with labor laws | Biden: Countries that target US elections will ‘pay a price’ Treasury sanctions Russian group accused of targeting US critical facilities with destructive malware Biden: Countries that interfere in US elections will ‘pay a price’ MORE announced the discovery of a series of threatening emails sent to voters that appeared to come from a far-right group but had in fact been traced to Iran, although Tehran has denied the allegations.